Mohlomphehi Ramatlakane, ke o rata ha o bua Sesotho hobane ka nnete ho a ipontshahatsa hore Xhamela ha a o ruta qapodiso ya SeXhosa. [Hon Ramatlakane, I like it when you speak in Sesotho, because it is evident that Xhamela did not teach you isiXhosa properly.] [Laugther.]
Allow me, however, to respond to this very important question of yours in English and to paraphrase what hon Ramatlakane has put across to me. He would like to find out if, in fact, we are continuing with the Palama programme because he had hoped that I would deal with the issue of the school of government in my response.
I am very glad, hon Ramatlakane, that you have asked this question because I did want to put it across. One of the central foundations of what we are doing in professionalising the Public Service and ensuring that all public servants immediately go to school, is to change the position that we had placed ourselves in, that of having the Palama institution, which served as a conduit on a very small scale to take public servants and make sure that they are enrolled in universities. What we are doing now is creating our own capacity in the school of government. We hope to unveil this in October, in honour of our hero of the struggle, Oliver Tambo, who was born in October. This will take place this year in October, when we will launch the school of government.
We want to make sure that there are compulsory induction courses, which are already underway, and will be part of the school. We have in place a team of people who are assisting me to make sure that we have the necessary coursework, infrastructure and support from the private sector to make the programmes that we are putting together a success.
We would like to make use of this opportunity to congratulate all those Members of Parliament who passed and graduated recently from a programme we jointly have between ourselves and the University of the Witwatersrand. We hope that the public servants will take their cue from this and take the leadership from you to ensure that they use the opportunity that we are providing for them. Thank you.